A bit of my background

---

As a child I drew images on the wall at night when I was supposed to be going to sleep or on my sister's back to help ease her into sleep.

On lazy summer days the sky was a big canvas. I would watch clouds change shapes and become an image, sometimes in the spaces between them. 

In those days, sticks were paint brushes used in mudr or sand and grade school recesses were spent drawing girls with long hair ending in flip curls for my classmates who waited their playground time away to get a "doll".

I doodled in diaries, then journals, later travelogues, and eventually they became art journals. 

In high-school I molded clay into a set of ceramic dishes for my hope chest. I designed and made my own clothing.

Eventually, I began washing sunrises and sunsets in soft and bold colors across pages because they were so beautiful they made me cry.

For years I "painted" with pieces of fabric stitched together to create postcard quilts. 

I explored the many pigments of earth, mixing them with mediums to paint sacred shields, rattles, drums and then faces with moon blood. 

Full moons fill me with light. 

The sacred Faery mounds of Ireland conjure ancient symbolic memories awake. 

I paint pictures through the words of my books, illustrating what is inarticulate-able and guided kindred spirits into the Otherworld with visions I describe for them. 

The mystic has swirled around me like gypsy skirts and shawl fringe flaring out in spiral dances of inner visions until my hands finally grabbed hold the wooden-handled-bore-bristled brushes which I plunged into vibrancy and spread across canvas, paper, wood, anything I could get my hands on including cardboard box panels and torn shopping bags.

The rhythm of the ocean, the brilliant colors of sunset, the feeling of sand against my bare feet have always truly grounded me into the core of my life. From this I will always be filled with renewed inspiration. From this my artistry will flow. From this I share my creations. From this I know:

           I Matter. I AM enough.